Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-20

elsewhere the middle classes go IN the
street-cars, coffin and all while the poor
walk, carrying their dead upon their
shoulders. When horse-cars were first in
troduced into the Mexican capital the
managers of the line conceived the plan of
buying and retiring all the hearses. Then
he put funeral ears GA that branch running
to the cemetery-and the result was that
everybody wishing TO bury in consecrated
ground was at his mercy. 1t soon became
the fashion to visit the pantheon in the
horse-cars, and all except the two extreme
classes-the very richest and the very poor
est-now avail themselves of the privilege.
One frequently encounters funeral pro-
cession of this kind, en- route to the grave,
the car drsped in black if the corpse be that
of man, or in white if it be woman or
child-the coffin exposed to the full glare of
the sun and the gaze of the populace, the
horses with their nodding plumes, driven
by spruce young man in conventional uni
form, and the car containing the "mourn-
ers" gliding gayly over the rails. The
price for this service is graduated to suit
the taste or necessities of the bereaved, and
ranges from 50 to S300-depending upon
the hearse equipments, the number of
horses ana llNerleu attendants.
Not far from Mexico City, near the end
of the shortest of those four Aztec cause
ways leading out of the ancient Tenochtit-
Ian, is the finest cemetery in the Republic
the Panteon de San Fernando. Among
the avenues through which you pass to
reach this interesting suburb is one called
Gale de los Honlbres Nustres, "The street of
Industrious men," but most of Mexico
heroes now reside little farther on, in
the more silent quarters of San Fernando,
either sepulchered in costly marble or
shelved in the C6lumbdrio, after the city
fashion of this country.
Some of these tombs are beautiful be-
yond description, in many of them the
rarest onyx having been used in the most
lavish manner. Here it is customary to
set photographs of the dead in their grave
stones and to keep lamps perpetually burn
ing before them, the sacred flame religiously
tended by successive generations By far
the richest sculpture in all the vast collec-
ton is that above the remains of the
Indian President, Juarez-the Washing
ton of Mexico" Here also lie buried
many of the unlucky leaders and Generals
who were executed by their countrymen
either by the people because they leaned
toward Spain, or by the Spaniards because
they favored the people.
There has been great improvement in
Mexico in the matter of funerals within
the last few years. Still, owing to the
scarcity of wood, which costs from $50 to
500 per thousand feet, and the wretchedly
small wages of the working classes, the
poor generally rent a coffin for the last sad
journey, at the cost of about a dollar Ar
| irving At the cemetery, the body is taken
out and wrapped in a serape, laid in its
rented grave and the gorgeously painted
box returned to its owner. In thousands
of cases the grave is hired only for the
space of three or four months, and at the
end Of that time the bones are shoyeled
out to make room for new tenant Quick
lime is thrown in with the corpse to
hasten the work of decomposition-but it
| is no uncommon sight to see, kicked about
the charnel yard of interior villages, skulls
with tresses of long hair attached, and
other horrors which show that no sacred
ness is here attached to the dead
To the average Mexican the idea of
ferently as he has lived. In many villages
the custom is still extant of decorating
dead children with the wings of geese and
turkeys, paper crowns, ribbons and flowers /;
then marching them about the streets
seated in a chair, and burying them amid
the noise of firecrackers and Ministries
playing polkas and fandangoes
few years ago one of the most cele-
brated writer's on Mexico said: In the
capital, as well as in the interior, l have
seen even more revolving things. The
pulque merchants hire dead bodies, called
ongetetos {" newborn angels ", as a means
of attracting customers. The gathering
crowd pray at first and then they drink,
while the muchachdS make appointments
with their lovers. Thus the body serves
several merchants in turn, earning for its
relations an honest penny, and is not
buried until too offensive to be longer en-
dured."
Even more curious are the customs of
All Saints Day, and the following eight
days Fair for the Dead.n Then all the
shops are in holiday dress, BULL fights and
theaters in full blast, and dealers in cakes
and bon-bons drive a lively trade But
| the confections must all be appropriate to
the season-suoh, for instance, as iointed
skeletons in spring boxes, deaths heads in
| sugar, candy cadavers, cakes in the form of
catafalques, etc. Every good Mexican at
tends this fair, for the sake of his departed
ancestors; and, as little gifts cherish pure
affection, the lover presents his sweetheart
with sugar skeleton, or skull as big as
| her fist, the husband regales his wife on
| taffy sepulcher, and the fond mother in
dulges her child in complete burial
scene. So everybody renders himself and
his friends as happy as possible, and these
strange tokens help to foster the national
Indifference to death.
Near this San Fernando pantheon is the
church of San Hypolito-one of the most
| attractive in Mexico. 1t was rebuilt in
1899, where Cortez once had hermitage
| in commemoration of the expulsion of the
| Spaniards. On corner of the wall in
closing the church is a queer carving in
stone, representing an eagle flying away
| with an Indian. Whether it is meant to
convey the idea of defeat VS.. victory for
the Indian-of the rapacity of the CON
querors or the translation of the Aztec to
realms of supernal bliss, is wholly a matter
of conjecture.
Near this church is the famous ditch
which Alyarado leaped-aecording to his
own account-on that disastrous night
known as noChe triste. Being commander
of the rear guard, he was one of the few
who escaped, and avowed that he owed his
life to gigantic leap, assisted by his spear,
across one of the great canals from which
the bridge had been removed Captain
Bernal Diaz, however (Cortezs companion,
who took part in the Fray, writing of this
event fifty years later, stoutly insists that
Alvarade lied, and that no human being
could have made such leap, as the
aperture was too wide and the sides too
high to permit of its accomplishment.
Continuing in this route, toward the
famous stree of the noche t,iste," under
which Cortez sat down and wept on that
sad night while his army was fleeing bv.
one finds many objects of interest. Beyond
that portion of the street known as Buena
Vista, where are many handsome resi-
dences and gardens of wealthy citizens, the
grand aqueduct of San Cosme ends in a
magnifcently sculptured fountain, from
which pours the limpid stream that has
been brought down from the springs of
Chapultepec. A little further on is the
gate which the Americans stormed, when
they charged into the city down the line of
this aoneduct Inst vhora H. -.